Burn Out

I had a lot of really positive feedback from my friends and family after writing about my experiences of going through burn out. If you haven’t read the post, check it out here. I’ve done some article summaries on the topic of burn out before, but I feel like it’s probably a good topic to bring up again in light of my recent post.

For a bit of background, burn out is a process that can occur to an individual that’s dedicating too much time to a particular activity. It leads to an imbalance in terms of what his or her time is put towards and can result in a person feeling depressed without any energy. Wikipedia does a pretty good job of summarizing it in one quick sentence:

Burnout is a psychological term that refers to long-term exhaustion and diminished interest in work.

With that said. please enjoy a couple of articles that I’ve surveyed from the web.

Articles

Job burnout: How to spot it and take action: This article is from a clinic’s staff, so it has an interesting unbiased perspective. It talks about the lack of drive or interest that people might experience from burn out, which is interesting, because I personally never felt that I started to lack drive or interest in my work. Personally, it was more about losing interest/drive in other areas of my life. I also wanted to draw attention to one of the symptoms the article mentions: irritability with colleagues/clients. This one is pretty dangerous because you can actually cause some damage based on your inability to control emotions because of this. It’s worth noting that if you constantly find yourself irritated by colleagues and/or clients and have some of the other symptoms present, you might be on your way to burning out. If you’ve always been irritated by your colleagues/clients, maybe you’re just sour. 🙂 The list is pretty short, but the article does a good job of covering some of the common causes and symptoms, so it’s worth it for a quick read.

10 Signs You’re Burning Out — And What To Do About It: This article by Lisa M. Gerry speaks to a story very similar to my own. Our burn out experiences were really not something like working overtime for a couple weeks straight… it took years to happen, and that’s why it’s dangerous. Lisa lists several symptoms that should be familiar now if you’ve checked out Wikipedia and the previous article(s). Interpersonal problems come up again as a symptom and same with cynicism… They’re probably related. The interpersonal problems can come on multiple fronts too, whether it’s an individual removing his or herself from their friends and family, or finding that they’re getting in more arguments (or just plain not getting along) with their friends/family. Lisa goes on to list some ways to get back on track, including cultivating a rich non-work life (something I’m seriously lacking right now) and actually taking a break from work. Those are two really important things, but she lists a handful more.

I Came Undone: One Woman’s Horrifyingly Real Experience With Burnout: I really loved this article by Glynnis MacNicol because it felt like the same experience I was going through… Except I never got to the point where I quit my job. One thing I keep pointing out because I feel it’s a bit different is that most people that go through burn out seem to resent their job… But I still love what I’m doing, and maybe that’s the only reason things didn’t go too far for me. Glynnis talks about being overly connected (thanks to social media, smart phones, email, etc…) and how it’s a struggle to actually just go home and be away from work. Are you even able to do that in your career? I’ve always felt like I like being connected to work when I go home so I can help out when it’s necessary… but on days where I’m feeling burdened, I have to explicitly tell myself “Close Outlook. Only use your phone when you want to get a hold of someone. Close the work instant messenger.” It does the trick for me, but I suppose it’s unfortunate that “home time” doesn’t actually mean “time to not work”.

Burn out and chronic stress: This one is another sort of “fact sheet” on burn out and chronic stress. It re-iterates many of the same points regarding symptoms of being over-stressed and feeling burnt out, but I liked the latter portion of the listing. Specifically, the very last point on the page says to re-evaluate your priorities and goals. Many of the other posts suggest that taking time off and forcing yourself to slow down are necessary, but few of them actually say to re-evaluate your goals. I think that without re-evaluating, you’re setting yourself up for some difficult times… at least if you’re feeling like me. I know I’m starting to burn out. I know I should slow down… but if I don’t change my priorities around, taking that time off and disconnecting is going to feel like a mental burden to me. How could I remove myself from work if my goal was to get more work done? If I can re-evaluate my goals to say that spending more time with friends and family is important and that taking X amount of time off for myself is important, then it’s a lot easier to convince myself that I actually do need that time off.

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I work as a team lead of software engineering at Magnet Forensics (http://www.magnetforensics.com). I'm into powerlifting, bodybuilding, and blogging about leadership/development topics over at http://www.devleader.ca.